MUSIC FROM PLANET EARTH: PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE

GIDEÖN
HOMO-CENTRIC RECORDS / NYC DOWNLOW / ADONIS / R3 SOUNDSYSTEM / BLOCK9

GIDEÖN has a background in music spanning 33 years. In addition to his studio practice as a recording artist, his work as a creative director, stage designer and curator, he is also a touring DJ and an avid collector of vinyl. Since his first set of turntables in 1990, GIDEÖN has devoted his life to collecting vinyl from the US, Jamaica, Latin America, Africa, and the UK. He specialises in Northern Soul, Latin, Reggae, Gospel, and Disco rarities. House Music, above all else, is his first and greatest love. 

He is currently Creative Director of a new opera being developed in partnership with English National Opera. He has a degree in Music with Visual Practice (BA Hons) and was guest Creative Director of Music for London Borough of Culture 2022. Recent projects have seen Gideon head up Creative Direction for Dua Lipa’s record breaking Studio 2054, winning the MVA’s Music Video of The Year award. He was production designer for lead artists at Live at Worthy Farm, Glastonbury’s virtual festival livestream. 

As a curator, he programmed two events for Chaka Khan’s Meltdown Festival in summer 2024 and is currently Head of Music at The Roof Gardens in London. Other projects include work with Anohni, Banksy, Imperial War Museum, Finnish Opera House, Hercules & Love Affair, Lana Del Ray, Skrillex, Brian Eno, Roisin Murphey, The Blessed Madonna, Honey Dijon, and Jorja Smith.

GIDEÖN co-founded, co-directs and curates Block9’s festival nightlife institutions The NYC Downlow, Genosys, Maceo’s and IICON at Glastonbury Festival. He is also resident and co-booker at London’s hottest queer club night Adonis. As a radio DJ, GIDEÖN has been actively involved in broadcasting for over three decades. Since cutting his teeth on London’s pirate stations in the late nineties, he hosted a weekly show on London’s Soho Radio for 3 years. Recent guest appearances include New York’s Beats In Space, London’s Rinse FM, NTS Radio and BBC 6 Music. He recently held a residency at BBC Radio 1.

GIDEÖN has been involved in political activism his entire life and is now increasingly focussed on organising hybrid cultural-political events partnering music and protest, often under the banner of R3 Soundsystem. Together with charities Love Music Hate Racism & Stand Up To Racism, GIDEÖN has organised major sound system interventions on many of the Stop Brexit and Stop Trump and Anti-Fascism protests. He is actively involved with fundraising for several LGBTQ+, human rights and social justice organisations including AllOut, Medical Aid For Palestinians, Prepster, Human Dignity Trust and Refugee Community Kitchen. GIDEÖN sits on the advisory committee for The Right to Dance, part of War Child’s NGO Network.

R3 Soundsystem is a consortium of DJs, musicians, producers, record labels, festivals, nightclubs, sound systems, activists, and cultural organisations, all united by love of music and the rejection of right-wing nationalist values. R3’s three Rs stand for RESIST/REJECT/REVOLT.

GIDEÖN’s House Music label HOMO-CENTRIC RECORDS launched to showcase both his solo productions and collaborations with close queer comrades. The label focusses on the LGBTQ+ heritage of House and attempts to pay homage to its lost heroes. Its manifesto states the intent to re-establish the lines of queer musical tradition at the heart of House, lost to AIDS and the capitalist desecration of dance music itself.

The Remedy Project is the imprint of London-based tastemaker Melvo Baptiste. Throughout Melvo’s decade in broadcasting and A&R he has shared his musical DNA of soul, rare groove, funk, disco and house with enthusiasts around the world, while making connections with contemporary artists on the peripheries of these genres in his quest to become the next indie champion. 

The Remedy Project is dedicated to the development of those young, forward-thinking, genre-bending and ambitious musicians. The label’s founding principles are to offer a home and a platform to these like-minded artists.

The Classic Music Company by Luke Solomon & Derrick Carter continues to play the game under their own conditions. As a label it never died it just retreated for a while in order to come back stronger. All hail the king because the king is back. Long live Classic!

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